DIPLOMATE JUNGIAN ANALYST

Art therapy is a profession
that integrates the fields of art and psychotherapy into a specific approach
and philosophy towards psychological issues and concerns. It is an integrated
treatment approach that is clinically rooted and applicable for all
populations. For further understanding of art therapy and the educational
training, you can visit the American Art Therapy Association. My training and hours of experience allows me to work
as a Registered and Board Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC)

Art psychotherapy uses art materials
to access your feelings and imagination with intention, force, and a certain
amount of spontaneity and abandonment. Art materials can be used within a therapy
or analytic session to capture the nonverbal, inexpressible, and unknown
aspects of the inner experience. Other times, art materials are used outside of
a session, bringing the visual story back into therapy where further work takes
place. Art therapy visually reveals, explores, documents and transforms the
narrative of ones life as well as slowing ones process down enough to track the
subtle feelings, thoughts, or memories within the moment or over time.

Now, you may be thinking
that you can’t “draw a straight line” or you haven’t used art materials “since
kindergarten” and you are not the creative type. If this has been going on for
you while reading about art therapy, notice how your critic steps in before you
even get a chance to explore the possibilities. Creating images is a courageous
act. The results are not always pretty, perfect or socially acceptable. Not
only might you feel some
vulnerability during and after the process, the image is also revealed and made
vulnerable when seen by you and others. Art therapy encourages and nourishes
the creative instinct that lives in all of us; we all have the desire and need
to play. There is no right way to use materials and you do not need to be a
trained artist to participate in art therapy—in fact sometimes an “expertise”
gets in the way—it is primarily about the willingness to try, to explore, and
to engage in the spontaneously playful and imaginative parts of our psyche.
Sometimes a simple line of a specific color can shift ones view.

Certainly, it takes courage
to allow for accidents, messes, or
spontaneous marks all the while trusting that the emerging image has a life of
its own and that it takes time to find the direction and meaning of a piece of
work. Equally, it takes courage and determination to ward off the critic so
other parts of our psyche can have the space and time to find expression. Giving
birth to an image defines the space
to develop a kind of relationship, an emotional interest of satisfaction,
surprise or delight—you feel an appreciation for the process, the results and
even for yourself. At other times, you may feel frustration, revulsion and
disgust, with not only the image, but also parts of your self that remain as
obstacles or worn out patterns. These disavowed feelings may be previously unknown
or unseen, difficult to accept, or simply unwanted. All of this is the direct
experience of the Jungian idea of confronting
and integrating the shadow, which can only be done by becoming conscious of
unconscious material as it pushes into our conscious realm. Art is a powerful
way to do this. Every one of us is creative, whether we recognize this or not.
The creative process facilitates healing for any age, condition, or emotional
situation.

A Jungian approach to art psychotherapy is cognizant of content,
placement, color, and materials while the approach also encourages an active
engagement with the deeper hidden elements of an emerging image, resulting in a
direct alchemical experience through the materials as well as the healing power
of symbols. In addition, personal myths can be unearthed through in depth analytical
work on complexes and archetypal themes, which are more easily experienced and
known through images and symbols. Jung said, “Psyche is image” illustrating how
art therapy is a natural fit with Jungian oriented psychotherapy.